Bushwick residents to be displaced as part of M train repairs plan

Last month, Bushwick residents along a stretch of the elevated M train got the news that track repairs along the track next year may last for months. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, however, neglected to mention a key aspect of the renovation plan: Several of them would have to relocate.

On March 18, the MTA announced in a press release that repairs on the M line would start in the summer of 2017. For two months, there will be no M trains between Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue stops.

The agency’s board decided on March 23 that it needed to relocate people in 26 apartments, a coffee shop and bicycle store on Ditmars Street and Myrtle Avenue during the repairs, according to MTA documents, Newsday reported.

The MTA says it will take anywhere for six to 10 months or “potentially longer” to rebuild a viaduct near the residences and shops that connects the M to the J and Z lines, DNAinfo reported.

Newsday spoke with residents and shop owners who said they had not heard about relocating during the repairs and a MTA spokesperson told the newspaper that notices were sent out Thursday and hand-delivered Friday.

“We know this is going to be a serious inconvenience. … We intend to to help them however we can because it is essential we do this work,” MTA spokesperson Stephen Morello told Newsday.

The agency said it will “provide suitable accommodations” and compensation to the residents, but it will start eminent domain proceedings if tenants refuse to leave, DNAinfo reported.